As in the real world, there are various types of naval and merchant ships in the civilizations in the galaxy that I deal with.

We have freighters, tankers and packets. A packet is a passenger ship, just an old fashioned name for a liner. Tankers haul liquids and gasses either in interplanetary or interstellar traffic. Freighters haul cargo.

Military ships include tankerstankers, freighters and packets,(called transports by the military) tenders and other auxiliary vessels.

You will encounter in my writings various classes of warships. The designations are to help the reader to understand what is going on.

The capital ships are Base Ships, Dreadnoughts and Battlecruisers. Base Ships are armed mainly with strike and fighter aircraft which can operate in space or as conventional aircraft in the atmosphere. Dreadnoughts are armed with the most powerful battery weapons and has the greatest shielding available. Battlecruisers have Dreadnought firepower but has less protection than a Dreadnought. The are, on the other hand, faster than a Dreadnought. They are designed to run down enemy cruisers and destroy them and are ideal in commerce raiders. As capital ships, they have true hyperdrive capabilities enabling to go star to star without using a star gate.

Cruisers come in heavy and light. The difference being in the realm of firepower and protection. Unlike capital ships, cruisers are Stargate dependant in interstellar travel. An important province will harbor a cruiser squadron and less important province's will have a flotilla of frigates and sloops with a light cruiser as a flagship.

Lighter warships are frigates, a large escort vessel and sloops which are smaller escorts. Their task is to protect shipping in the system and escort heavier warships. Corvettes are more lightly armed with FLAK batteries to protect against aerial bombardment of of the fleet or convoy. The smallest escortpatrol vessels are cutters whic watch for clandestine activities such as smuggling, illegal migration and unauthorized slaving.(some civilizations permit slavery while others do not)

Siege vessels are Monitors and Ketches, light or medium vessels armed with heavier artillery than their hull types call for for the purpose of bombarding enemy emplacements and fortifications. These ships can smash an asteroid, a moon or even a planet. The difference between a ketch and a monitor is that a ketch is a frigate armed with a single battery of heavy cruiser armaments and a monitor is a heavy cruiser armed with a single battery of Dreadnought armaments.

Barges and pinnaces are unarmed landing craft. A barge is large a pinnace is smaller.

Story I'm working on at the moment. I've decided to take up a little writing beyond just system descriptions and planet descriptions. This is told in Abbah NKD095 from an Edonian point of view, so look at the system for references I might make. Hope you like it.

I’m an Xenoarcheologist. I dig up the remains of ancient alien societies and then try to figure out what it is that I had found. 9,999 times out of 10,000, it’s garbage, broken, degraded, and unusable. The few gems that I find fund missions like this one.

NKD095.15.45 is an Edon-like moon, with carbon-based life.. Gravity is about 5% lighter than my home planet.

We had made base camp on NKD095.15.45's major continent. That was when we found the structures. The planetary survey had found this moon long ago, but it’s only now that we were able to mount a real expedition to map the surface. Our initial orbital survey, whose original goal was to find a suitable place for colonization, instead found a ton of archeological sites, so we picked the one closest to the equator and landed.

Now I’m standing here in this canal, and I’m looking at the most intact xeno-site I have ever seen on a planet. OK, it’s a large moon around a super gas giant. It’s smaller than Edon, and bigger than Encervis, so it is similar in size to most of the terrestrial planets in the system. Of course, we find more intact finds on proper, vacuum scarred moons, but then that’s to be expected.

“Doctor Askvig,” said Hanson, who was kneeling next to me, “it’s just…wow.”

“Yes,” I replied, “and that makes me worried. Something this intact may mean that the previous inhabitants are still around…”

"Thompson," said Hanson, directing his orders to the third member of our team, "are you recording any of this?" Thompson, engrossed in his DEX's screen, only nodded. He was as impressed as Hanson and I. "What do you think it is, sir?" Hewey's voice signaled his return from the recon mission around the canal. "Well, Mr. Hewett, we won't know until we get a closer look." I replied, turning to face him. "Did you locate a safe way down? We can't risk any injuries before the expedition has even started."

Hewey nodded. "I've located an area of the canal wall that is not quite as steep. We might be able to get some natural footholds in the cliffside."

"Alright then, boys, we're moving out" Hanson said, walking over to our small forward base on the cliffside. The camp consisted of a few of my own men, but mostly consisted of soldiers. In the jungle below, there might be lots of nasties to deal with.

Light filtered in through holes in the jungle canopy, giving the overall jungle a dim light, even though it was in the middle of the afternoon. "Alright men," Hanson adressed his troops, "spread out. I want the entire area secure as we move torward our ruins. Hewey, Toby, you scout on ahead. Stay in sight."

Various replies of "yes, Commander" were spoken, and our hired security force spread out. "Thank goodness the Republic supports expeditions like these, eh Doctor?" Thompson called over to me, constantly recording our expedition on his DEX. I grinned at his comment. President Elise, after coming into office, took an intrest not in expansion of territory, but instead expansion of relations with our allies and the aquirement of new knowledge. Many recent xenoarcheological expeditions had been sponsored not only by the Board, but by the government itself.

We finally arrived at the first structure. It was the base of a huge stone arch, one of many that we saw from above. I gave the orders to stop, and my team examined the arch. "Doctor, I've found something that I think might be of intrest." Dalton and his brother, Benett, were staring up at the arch. "What, Dalton?" I looked up as well, trying to follow their gaze. "Carvings." said Benett, pointing up to help me find it. I saw what they were saying. Huge carvings were etched into the stone, some covered by foliage or weathered away. "They look like Ancient Edonian in appearence." I said, bringing out my DEX to call up the files I had on Ancient Edonian writing. For all of you who don't know, the EP002 Encyclopedia Series DEX is a handheld electronic encyclopedia device. Its function is to provide a designated individual with information and advice regarding known locations, people, cultures, and etc. in the Galaxiki. Almost everyone owns one, making it easy to acess information. Sure enough, the files on my DEX were almost identical to the carvings before us. "Graham, do you know what these mean?" I asked. Graham Norwell, the leading expert on ancient language in my team, pushed up his glasses and looked up at the wall. "Let's see..." His eyes were squinted in concentration. "It looks like that one is a G...N...E..A....Hmm, interesting."

Graham was one of my closest collegues, and friends. And an 'intresting' from him was signifigantly more than just intresting. "What is it, Graham? Something unexpected?" I was excited. Ancient Edonian meant that we had stumbled upon something from our own ancient past. Although, how did it get here? As far as my knowledge went, I had no record on a Lucius gate connection to here. "Well, Doctor, the writing seems to indicate that the letters I said out loud to you are part of a name. And there is only one prominent ancient Edonian with that name that I can think of."

I inhaled sharply, "You mean, Gilnea? One of the mortals of ancient times believed to have ascended to godly status?" Gilnea is mostly a mythical figure. No one is quite sure if he was a god or not, or even if he actually lived or not. Graham looked over at me. "Based on the other words surrounding it, I believe this arch marks one of two possibilities - a temple to Gilnea, or, if we are lucky, his tomb."

"If this is Gilnea's tomb, it will be the find of the decade, if not the century!" Thompson exclaimed, busy snapping pictures of the arch and writing. I grinned again, looking around at my collegues and our security team. "Lets get ready to go then. We have a ruin to find!"

Hello people on Galaxiki!! I am relatively new to Galaxiki. I have been working on the species known as the Kulan. They are in system TFH314. It is a public system. I have been working on building a navy for the Kulan. Do any of you any ideas about what this navy could do besides fight pirates. It is a space navy in case you were wondering. What would make for interesting ideas?? Also does any one have a colony or a system near TFH314. There are four colonies, all in TFH area.

The curiosity shop is in the Old Quarter on Truce, and it’s very, very old. Dates back four thousand years, according to its owner. How he came into possession of it is something no one can agree on. I heard from a Riv that it had been won in a game of triangle two-hundred years ago, but Lyan told me the owner had bought it for two drinks and an imaginary spaceship three-hundred years ago. If you asked the owner, he would just smile knowingly, and wink.

I entered to the clear ring of a bell. The shop was cluttered, with little figurines and blinking devices covering every inch of the shelves and posters plastered all over the walls, but it seemed deserted.

Suddenly there was a nasally voice from the back of the shop, where I couldn’t see. “Forgive me Kraz na Karan. I’ll be with you in a moment.”

No one knows much about him. Only that he’s a Sillak, that he’s short and fat with fur made white by age, that he’s owned a curiosity shop for as long anyone can remember, and that he knows things.

He opened his arms in greeting. “Kala my dear, I haven’t seen you since that unfortunate business at Octars.”

I didn’t embrace him, of course. “It’s been too long Greenstone. I need to find someone.”

His face, and arms, fell. “No one ever seems to want to just talk,” he said as he bustled over to close the shutters, “Everyone is always looking for this person or that person, but it’s never Greenstone they’re looking for.” He turned the shop sign from to ‘closed’. “Now, who do you want?”

“Laaros Reeowin,” I said, before adding “The slaver.”

“Wouldn’t want to fly in on Laaros Reeowin, the Knight from Green Groves, would we now?” he said as he approached a poster of some ancient politician, “Though our good friend the former slaver is a Knight as well, these days.”

What the fuck was this? “Former slaver? Knight? How in the name of the King does that happen?”

Greenstone pulled the poster aside and began entering numbers to the lock of the safe behind. “Our man found himself good friends with the new baron of New Age, who magnanimously knighted him and gave him a letter of marque.”

“What did they bond over? Torture and murder?” This changed nothing.

“Triangle,” he said, pulling a data chip from the rows of hundreds inside the safe, then slamming it shut. “Sir Laaros is now a respectable privateer, raiding shipping over Neo Zion for the profit and glory of New Age, and their benefactors in Greeosta-Leeona of course.”

I gestured towards the data chip. “Flight records, right? How much?”

After some haggling, I paid him ten-thousand silear, and made to leave, data chip secured in my pocket.

“You know, you’re not the first person to come asking about Laaros Reeowin these two months,” said Greenstone as I put my hand on the door knob.

I slowly pulled my arm back. “Who?” I asked, reaching for my wallet.

“No, no,” he said with a false bow, “This is for our friendship. Six weeks ago, I was visited by a Canthin who asked about Sir Laaros. He wouldn’t say who he worked but…” he grinned and tapped the side of his head, “I have my ways.” The smile disappeared and he looked straight at me. His eyes were very old and I could tell he was very serious. “The Silver Swords want him Kala. They’ve rebuilt their numbers to over four-thousand hulls, and something tells me Fury Kreeoa would take a Kraz’s head over a deserter’s.”

I laughed. “He calls himself ‘Fury?’ I wonder if he really thinks it’s intimidating. Did you give this Mella the records?”

Greenstone shrugged. “He had coin. The Silver Swords will be flying straight for him.”

I took a pace forwards, and looked his dead in the eye. “I doesn’t matter. At Octars his father had ten-thousand hulls and twice the tactical brain, and he still lost a fifth of his fleet and his own head. “

Now Greenstone gave a low, rasping laugh. “Do you really think that a battle thirty years ago will help your fifty ships defeat four-thousand?”

I stopped. “Kreeoa won’t send his entire fleet for the sake of a hundred deserter vessels.”

“Won’t he? My sources say that he is a very angry young man, as the name suggests. In fact,” Greenstone moved across to the shop counter, “There’s a slave I think you would be very interested in.”

“We don’t do slaves,” I snapped.

“Of course not. I misspoke.” He opened the till and put the cash in. “A former slave. Quirus Lain, a Zionite, who fled from the Swords at Krees Whole about a year ago. He was the personal slave of old Teerow Kreeoa for about thirty years before Octars, and has been the same for Fury since then.” He looked at me earnestly. “You’ll find him with Ral of the House of N'thrak on Raw Ot Dne at the edge of the system. Speak to Quirus, Kala. Speak to him and go back to Kraznus. I have no wish to see you dead.”

The last place we could put Reeowin was in New Age, which he had just conquered as part of the fleet of the Little King of Gretza-Leona or some such place. He had received a large payment in gold and slaves, and pressed several free captains into his service. Our intel had him taking the voidgate to Zeron, and presumably he Lonied from there to parts unknown. This was about four years before we departed, so he could have been anywhere in the galaxy by then. I decided that the best course of action was to pursue intel from a friendly port.

So we Darked out of Kraznus to the black hole Lanneret. From there we arrived in Peace some hundred-an-twelve days later. Of course I talked to the Commander (of the Defence Force), expecting just a formalised wave through for our ships. But… something wasn’t right. I know… knew… Messeret Dalcoran well. Back when I was commanding the Tar Baby under Lyan Lariz in the ‘60s and ‘70s I drunk with him dozens of times in The Golden Treaty on Ceasefire. So I knew he was on edge. He wouldn’t let our ships in. I had to keep all forty-seven of them in formation at the edge of the system and take the White Heart in on his own. Dalcoran wouldn’t even give shore leave for the rest of the ships, so I had ten thousand pissed off Kraz to deal with as well.

It was strange. Defence ships were everywhere, and there were far fewer traders than I expected. I was in the Peace at the height of the Bastard’s War, and even then things weren’t as on edge. I couldn’t think what was causing it. The only on-going conflicts since the end of that New Age business were the usual small fare between the littlest of the Little Kings. So I radioed Dalcoran again, and asked him to meet me for a drink in The Golden Treaty, for old times’ sake.

I don’t know if you’ve all been to Peace, so I guess I should tell you, for context, that the orbit of the gas giant Armistice is the busiest thoroughfare in known space. You can’t land any but the smallest ships on the two moons, Truce and Ceasefire, so mostly you have to orbit your ship and shuttle back and forth. But everyone comes to Truce, everyone from Windstari and Ganite traders to the sons of Little Kings to Riv mercs, to see the legendary sights, or do business in the only real, safe international trading post on the Grid. Lyan once told me that during the Thirty Year Peace he saw one million vessels orbiting Armistice. That’s probably bullshit but even so, after the Bastard’s War, seeing a full hundred thousand hulls wasn’t particularly unusual. When we got to orbit there were less than four thousand ships there. That’s lunacy. That’s dead. Hell, when I took my shuttle down to Ceasefire I even got landing clearance in less than an hour.

Dalcoran was waiting for me. He was sitting at a table in the far corner, nursing a pitcher of Ganite ale. I went to the bar and ordered a Breekinburg. The girl behind the bar was a Zionite, with beautiful white wings and a nice smile.

“I didn’t know you drunk those,” said Dalcoran as I sat down opposite him, “They’re a little strong for my taste.”

I sipped the cocktail. “I had one down in Zion space and know I’m hooked. And their strength is the attraction. Gives a real kick.” I put it down. “Doesn’t last long, of course.” There was an awkward moment silence. “How’s Vallara? And the kids?”

“The kids are fine. Tilly’s working for the parliament now. I sent Vallara back to Praggis.” He stared into his beer and swirled it slowly. “There’s a war coming Kala,” he said slowly, like he was confessing a dirty secret.

“That’s nothing new, Messeret. War’s always coming.”

He shook his head. “I don’t mean – what is it you Kraz say? – Little Wars for Little Kings. I mean a big war, bigger than the Bastard or Breekinburg maybe. I’m not the only one who thinks it either. You saw the system, it’s empty.” He grabbed his pitcher and downed the whole thing. “They know it’ll start here. There’s at least ten Canthin fleets in striking distance of us right now.”